Thursday, November 29, 2007

In conjunction with Lo-Fi Customs, we are again silk-screening graphics onto a handful of our cottony-soft TechComfort jerseys. Here are some of the designs we are considering. The first with the vintage chainrings across the chest is moving ahead. The other two are on the bubble. Input on these designs or your own ideas welcome.These might not make it in time for Christmas shopping, but we are having a little Holiday Sale on some of our current designs. Snatch them up before they are all gone. (Chainring silhouettes are from Joel Metz's collection.)

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Don't you love it when you get a fat envelope in the mail? It usually is some schwag from an alley cat we sponsored or a product sample. Yesterday we received the inaugaral copy of Cog Magazine (and a superbe looking t-shirt). Cog is unique in the cycling magazine world in that it is given away for free, but it isn't printed on cheesy newsprint. It is a large 9x12 format in glossy 4-color perfect for capturing the "groovy" beauty of city bike culture. This issue features coverage of the NACCC '07, the "Pisto Boom" in Tokyo and an in-depth feature on Jonny Cycles.

What's our interest in a new magazine launch besides our love of reading?Kevin Sparrow, one of the editors, told us a few months back that they did a skid test on several tires and that our thick-treaded Soma Everwear came out on top. They said it did so well that in their single night of "accelerated real world testing,"the Everwear was the only tire that didn't give up the ghost before they got tired and wanted to go home. Click on image to read.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

With an estimated 8 billion spring water bottles worldwide NOT making it to the recycling centers in 2006 alone, there is no better time to reduce your plastic trash heap-making habit and hydrate responsibly.

Need more brilliant reasons to do so?1 )Well we are finally releasing an improved polypropylene bottle with a softer spout, so it is easier to pull open with your teeth.2 ) Plus it IS "Green Week" on NBC!

I go to the gym regularly to keep my back in shape and I get really riled when I see most people carrying Aquafina and Crystal Geyser bottles instead of a reuseable bottle. If they work out 3x a week, that adds up 156 bottles a year per gym rat. This is in the SF Bay Area where drinking straight from the tap will not turn your stomach. If you live in Texas or someplace where filtering your tap water is a must, I feel for you. But I still think using a reusable bottle is a one of the easier "green" habits all of us can adopt. I use reusable bottles at the gym and at work and of course for cycling.

The Soma bottle is still polypropylene (recycling symbol #5). It will not add a plastic taste like traditional LDPE bicycle water bottles, but it is squeezable like an LDPE (recycling symbol #4)bottle. It also has not been shown to leach bisephenol-A like the popular Lexan / polycarbonate (recycling symbol #7) camping bottles.

The new 22 oz. cycling bottle is available in "smoke" and "blue" in a few days. Unlike Pepsi and other water bottlers, we are happy if you only buy 2 of our bottles per year.

Monday, November 5, 2007

• Our 29er, the Juice, gets some improvements. Frame brake bosses will be removable. A new box section gusset strengthens the frame and clears any suspension fork knob. This new production will also move to 135mm hub spacing, which will make it easier to install the rear wheel. These will be available early next month in 18" and 20" sizes. Colors: Midnight Silver and Spice Red.• Oppy-X Double Toe Clips will be available soon in powder coat black, pink and white. The pink will coordinate decently with our hot pink track grips or rose pink bar tape.

Friday, November 2, 2007

[Orginally posted Oct 2, 2007 on the mother site]• Our Kamisori and Ensho saddles hit the warehouse today. In October, just as we said! That's a first. These are slick looking colored saddles with a CrMo rail price instead of a Ti rail price that most colored race saddles have.

• We have a Flickr page: It is mainly for posting older frame pix and Soma owner pix, but we did post a a pic of the new 650b MTB concept bike over there.

• 2008 Soma Rush: We will be phasing out the Fiery Red color and introducing a Pearl White. If you think white is a little 'played out', you can still get it in black. But our new Japanese distributor, Tokyo San Esu, really wanted to see white Rushes. Downtube decals will be removable on the new stock.

• 2008 Double Cross DC (i.e. "disc/canti"): We will finally be releasing a Double Cross with disc mounts. Cantilever bosses will be removable. Some of you are probably saying, "It's about time." It will be in the matte Midnight Silver that's been popular on our Juice frames. For the time being, this model will be offered in only 50 to 58cm.

There will still be cantilever-only Double Crosses in 2008 --for those who don't see the need for discs-- in a full size range.

• There is a brand new road frame that we plan to release mid-2008. We will release more details after evaluating our prototypes.

When we were looking at names for bars last year, we began looking at names the Torrington company had used. 'Lawson' and 'Kramer' were names we were looking at. Upon further research into the names, we found out the two were contemporaries of Major Taylor. Andrew Ritchie's biography 'Major Taylor' painted talented American racers, Iver Lawson and Frank Kramer as the bitterest of rivals to Major Taylor. Supposedly there was a time Kramer, Lawson, and a third racer named McFarland tried going after him after a race. So you can see how we could not have a bar named 'Lawson Racer' in the same stable as a bar named 'Major Taylor'.

Major Taylor gave racing in Australia a try because it gave him a break from his American rivals and being a deeply religious man, he didn't want to race on Sundays. Australia didn't have races on Sundays. Don Walker, an Australian champion, also a Christian, hit it off with Taylor. What struck us at Soma was Walker's strong disgust for the racist sentiment in America at that time. In order to get served in a restaurant in San Francisco, Walker went into a restaurant where Taylor and his wife had already been refused service and ordered lunch for three, saying that his companions would be coming shortly. The food came. He paid the bill...then he brought the Taylors in. Great story. That's why our last track bar is named the 'Walker Racer.'

• We have released a new track crank and track pedal. Named after the velodrome in San Jose, CA. The cranks are cold forged and shiny silver. The pedals have sealed cartridge bearings and a CNC'd cage.• Also check out our new Oxford handlebar, which is the third bar we have released this year. Our Kamisori and Ensho saddles are up on the site but not yet available. (Originally published Sept. 15, 2007)

As you may have heard some builders are unveiling 650b (27.5" tires) MTB prototype/concept bikes at this year's Interbike.Here is ours–currently codenamed the "B-Side". It is a steel single speed hardtail. We chose a single-speed format, because we think SS folks are a little more stoked to try something different. This was built locally and will be used for testing as well as showing at Interbike. We plan to have it displayed at premier distributor BTI's booth. No production frames are planned yet. It really depends on public response.

The opportunity to explore the new platform was too easy to pass up. Tires, rims, suspension forks are being made available as we publish this. Pacenti's Neo-Moto 2.3's tires and Velocity's Blunt rims both look like winners. White Brothers forks are a proven design. Certain 26" suspension forks like Mavericks already work. If you can't find 650b tubes, 26" tubes will suffice. If we decided to pump out 50 frames, we know there will be parts to build them with.

While we acknowledge most big wheel enthusiasts are too still in love with their 29ers to consider a third wheel size, from a frame designer's standpoint 650b is territory definitely worth exploring. When designing the Juice 29er frame we did notice we had to make certain 'compromises' to get things like standover height and bar height to come out reasonable. Builders will continue to have to deal with design issues as customers demand more travel. Though the 650b size is roughly in the middle between 26" and 29", we found we could use proven 26" wheel geometries, which is sweet. Chainstay length is very close to 26" wheel bikes.

The 650b platform also promises stronger, lighter wheels, and other theoretical advantages over the 29er platform, but we won't open our mouth too much here until after we get in some rides on our B-Side.

7x7, a San Francisco magazine covering the flava of our city put our bike coffee holder in their annual "Very Best of SF" issue. Category: Best Way to Have Your Coffee and Ride Your Bike" Thanks 7x7! Do we get a trophy or something? (Orig. posted on Somafab.com July 18, 2007)